Mongolian Ping Pong

Three little boys—Bilike, Dawa, and Erguotou—who live with their nomadic families on the vast Mongolian grasslands, become obsessed when one of them finds an unfamiliar object floating in a creek: a ping pong ball. Charming, quaint, and gently absurd, filmmaker Ning Hao's modest comedy has the flavor of The Gods Must Be Crazy, taking its young protagonists on a pilgrimage of sorts, after a broadcast on a recently acquired TV set suggests that the ping pong ball is the “national ball of China,” and the boys set out for Beijing (which they mistakenly think is just over a few hills in the local Gobi Desert) to return it. Hao shoots the vast Mongolian steppe with austere long shots, an approach that tends to swallow the characters, but he also imbues the boys with heroic qualities, and there's something decidedly majestic in seeing them on their small horses and puny motor scooter, moving with a purpose. Decidedly offbeat and disarmingly simple, Mongolian Ping Pong is a delightful import. Recommended. (E. Hulse)